question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Is it bad to eat a lot of salt if I don't have high blood pressure and stay hydrated? | No. Surprisingly, little solid evidence supports a relationship between cardiovascular disease and salt intake. In fact, a study just found no relationship.
This isn't really that unexpected. Do you really think evolution wouldn't know what to do with sodium and chloride ions? | [
"A 2014 Cochrane review found unclear benefit of recommending a low-salt diet in people with high or normal blood pressure. In those with heart failure, after one study was left out, the rest of the trials show a trend to benefit. Another review of dietary salt concluded that there is strong evidence that high diet... |
where do the mafia come from? | Here's one idea.
1. A culture of amoral familism. That is, a society where people's loyalty is strongly oriented towards their own family or a close group of friends, but where loyalty to broader constructs like "Society" or "the nation" is much less important. This is exacerbated by:
2. An unfair society where money... | [
"A mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate whose primary activities are protection racketeering, arbitrating disputes between criminals, and brokering and enforcing illegal agreements and transactions. Mafias often engage in secondary activities such as gambling, loan sharking, drug-trafficking, prostitution, ... |
how does a cars speedometer know not to increase when a cars tires are spinning? | It does not know. It assumes the tires are in proper contact with the ground, and when they are not, it gives an incorrect reading.
Future speedometers may be corrected using GPS, but that generally is not done today. | [
"Most speedometers have tolerances of some ±10%, mainly due to variations in tire diameter. Sources of error due to tire diameter variations are wear, temperature, pressure, vehicle load, and nominal tire size. Vehicle manufacturers usually calibrate speedometers to read high by an amount equal to the average error... |
if atmospheric pressure exerts 1 ton of pressure on me, why can't i feel it? | > I am about .1 m^2 when standing. Maybe .3m^2 when lying down.
You're mistaken there. What you need to measure if your body's *surface area*. The atmosphere presses in on you from every direction, not just from above. And the surface area of your skin doesn't change when you change positions.
> I have this muc... | [
"In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. As elevation increases, there is less overlying atmospheric mass, so that atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing elevation. Pressure measures force per uni... |
if music was played too loud through a set of speakers, could one die from it? | Yes, the high pressure from the sound wave can damage internal organs the required volume differs by frequency. Just listening to music very loud is pretty boring, it would be more effective to use loud infrasound (too low to hear) to make the eyeballs vibrate so you can't see or use loud ultrasound (too high to hear) ... | [
"Hearing may deteriorate gradually from chronic and repeated noise exposure (such as to loud music or background noise) or suddenly from exposure to impulse noise, which is a short high intensity noise (such as a gunshot or airhorn). In both types, loud sound overstimulates delicate hearing cells, leading to the pe... |
why airplanes' black boxes are called black boxes, when they are actually orange? | _URL_1_
> The origin of the term "black box" is uncertain. In a systems engineering context (since 1960's when the term was spreading), the meaning is:
> > the aircraft is modeled as a black box, and its behaviour will be understood by its recorded inputs (ex. pilot instructions) and outputs (ex. panel data lik... | [
"The term \"black box\" was a World War II British phrase, originating with the development of radio, radar, and electronic navigational aids in British and Allied combat aircraft. These often-secret electronic devices were literally encased in non-reflective black boxes or housings. The earliest identified refer... |
Why does steam sometimes rise from cold water? | Steam or water vapor is invisible, the "steam" we see is really the water vapor condensing into small water droplets which scatter the light giving them their cloud like appearance.
This happens when the warm water vapor enters a region of cooler air. A tea kettle going into the room produces these clouds of steam.
... | [
"When water is boiled the result is saturated steam, also referred to as \"wet steam.\" Saturated steam, while mostly consisting of water vapor, carries some unevaporated water in the form of droplets. Saturated steam is useful for many purposes, such as cooking, heating and sanitation, but is not desirable when st... |
how is lastpass different than any other website? | The encrypted password stored in their cloud were encrypted using the username and master password on whatever local machine. If hackers just get the password database, they would lack the actual username and master password. I'm assuming those reside on a different database, and they use account numbers to correlate b... | [
"An online pass is a digital rights management system for restricting access to supplemental functionality in a product by using a single-use serial number. Online passes are primarily intended to hinder or discourage the second-hand sale of a product, and to allow the producer of a product to still return profits ... |
What percentage of the weight of the Earth consists on biological life? | The total biomass on earth (excluding bacteria) is estimated to be around 560 billion metric tonnes.
The earth weighs
5.9721986×10^21 metric tonnes.
Divide the weight of earth by 100, and divide the 560 billion tonnes by the 5.9721986×10^19 metric tonnes.
That gives you:
0.0000000093767813%
I think i can safely ass... | [
"Some estimates on the number of Earth's current species of life forms range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. However, a May 2016 scientific report estimates that 1 trillion species are currently on Earth, with only one-t... |
Field Marshal Montgomery - how close did the Allies actually come to accomplishing the goals of Operation Market Garden and was Montgomery’s post-battle analysis valid? | Operation Market Garden had very little chance of success because it literally hinged on every part of the campaign going perfectly and exactly on time. Unfortunately for Montgomery there were many setbacks early on in the battle and it was far from 90% successful.
The British 1st Airborne division was for all practi... | [
"Field Marshal Montgomery was exhibiting his now legendary meticulous and circumspect approach to such enterprises, a lesson he had learned early in the North African campaign against Rommel and one he could not easily forget. Thus, as his forces had approached the east bank of the river, Montgomery proceeded with ... |
why is the star wars prequel trilogy ridiculed so much in comparison to the original movies? | The prequels suffered greatly from poorly executed narrative which I attribute to the fact that there was no main character. On a more general scale, I think Lucas lost focus by attempting to fit too much into those movies.
This guy does a good job of "correcting" Episode 1: _URL_0_ | [
"When asked about the possibility of a \"Family Guy\" retelling of the other \"Star Wars\" trilogies, Alec Sulkin stated that a spoof of the \"Star Wars\" prequel and sequel trilogies were unlikely to happen due to the difficulty and struggle of spoofing \"The Empire Strikes Back\" and the 2012 Disney acquisition o... |
How is it that all of the human genome is only 800 megabytes in size? | 800mb is a LOT of data! That's nearly 5000x 100 page books.
20 years ago, 800mb would have been considered a *huge* amount of data. I think your opinion is skewed by modern storage requirements.
Also, nature has had 3.5 *billion* years to build the most efficient mechanisms it can. Mankind has barely had 75 years to ... | [
"In biological terms, there are 7.2 billion humans on the planet, each having a genome of 6.2 billion nucleotides. Since one byte can encode four nucleotide pairs, the individual genomes of every human on the planet could be encoded by approximately 1x10^19 bytes. The digital realm stored 500 times more information... |
How did presidents view other presidents | As you mention, Nixon was not fond of Reagan and would never have chosen him to be the standard bearer of the Republican Party. Nixon didn't have much of a say in these things though after Watergate, even though he built the political coalition that Reagan used to win his election.
Going back to the early 20th centur... | [
"The modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" whic... |
is our reading speed/comprehension limited to the time it takes to "read outloud" inside our mind? | Speed reading is definitely a real thing that can be learned. | [
"Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and decoding all the words on every page—faster than 900 wpm is not feasible given the limits set by the anatomy of the eye.\n",
"Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and decoding all the words on e... |
why can’t countries like zimbabwe just start their currency over, like europe did with the euro? | Zimbabwe did eventually after their 2012 bout with hyperinflation.
And Europe didn't really start their currency over; Europe didn't have a unified currency before the formation of the European Union, and that required a lot of negotiating and discussion and buy-in from the major EU countries, and even then Britain di... | [
"The use of foreign currencies was legalised in January 2009, causing general consumer prices to stabilise again after years of hyperinflation and price speculation. The move led to a sharp drop in the usage of the Zimbabwean dollar, as hyperinflation rendered even the highest denominations worthless. The Zimbabwea... |
Chemically speaking, is there anything besides economics that keeps us from recycling literally everything? | My applicable knowledge of recycling is limited to mainly organic (carbon-containing) materials.
Yes things like glass and most metals can be recycled indefinitely, as their chemical structure is relatively small and stable in extreme conditions. Glass is SiO2, and even at incineration temperatures of 1600°C, it's sti... | [
"In the strictest sense, recycling of a material would produce a fresh supply of the same material—for example, used office paper would be converted into new office paper or used polystyrene foam into new polystyrene. This is accomplished when recycling certain types of materials, such as metal cans, which can beco... |
If I dropped a lamp into a black hole and a photon left the lamp travelling *exactly* away from the singularity, after the lamp had passed the event horizon, would the photon slow down or leave the black hole? | If the lamp has crossed the event horizon, there is no direction leaving away from the singularity. The singularity is not a point in space but more of an instant in time in the future. All photon trajectories starting from the lamp end up in the singularity. | [
"While light can still escape from the photon sphere, any light that crosses the photon sphere on an inbound trajectory will be captured by the black hole. Hence any light that reaches an outside observer from the photon sphere must have been emitted by objects between the photon sphere and the event horizon.\n",
... |
how do farmers survive throught the whole year on just their own crops/livestock | Most farmers don't. They sell their livestock and crops, and buy food at the supermarket like anyone else.
In developing nations, you often have subsistence farmers who live primarily off what they grow. They survive by working their asses of and knowing there is no plan B, they either grow enough food or go hungr... | [
"A 2018 report published in \"PNAS\" asserted that farmers in the United States could sustain more than twice as many people than they do currently if they abandoned rearing farm animals for human consumption and instead focused on growing plants.\n",
"When farmers grow and harvest crops, they remove some nutrien... |
If human cell Hayflick limit is 50 divisions & skin cells divide every 3 weeks, why don't we lose all skin cells after 150 weeks? | Hayflick limits apply to fully differentiated cell lines. Your skin is not made entirely of differentiated skin cells, though. You also have step cells, and progenitor cells that can divide fairly indefinitely. These produce new differentiated skin cells. | [
"Cells of the body don't normally have the ability to divide indefinitely. They have a limited number of divisions before the cells become unable to divide (senescence), or die (crisis). The cause of these barriers is primarily due to the DNA at the end of chromosomes, known as telomeres. Telomeric DNA shortens wit... |
Where was the beginning of what we regard today as Government? | If you want a long and detailed answer to this question, check out "The Origins of Political Order" by Francis Fukuyama - the whole book is answering the question of where political organisation came from.
The book goes into various historical examples of where political order came from - even going to pre-history. So... | [
"The moment and place that the phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of early governments. About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared. By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas: Sumer... |
Would the average ancient Egyptian be able to read Hieroglyphs or was that knowledge reserved for the upper class? | Added question: Do any hieroglyphs have 'jokes' in them? For some reason I pictured there being some from of humour possibly hidden in them when I was looking at them in Egypt. | [
"By the 4th century, few Egyptians were capable of reading hieroglyphs, and the \"myth of allegorical hieroglyphs\" was ascendant. Monumental use of hieroglyphs ceased after the closing of all non-Christian temples in 391 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I; the last known inscription is from Philae, known as the Gra... |
How do internet banking card readers work? | A card reader doesn't need to be connected to the internet or anything to provide a code, it justs needs to be set up beforehand.
The process used with the card reader is known as challenge-response authentication. The server generates a (pseudo)random code to function as the challenge, probably based on some arbitrar... | [
"Motorized readers are built in, for example ATMs. The credit/debit-card is inserted into the card slot, where the first magnetic head is placed. If a magnetic stripe can be recognized, a shutter will be opened and the card will be transported to the second magnetic head by roles. The card is read, thereby the devi... |
What happened when black diplomats went to Rhodesia, South Africa, or Jim Crow United States? | There were fascinating conflicts and confrontations on all sides. Let's start with the United States.
Until 1961, the U.S. State Department relied on its Office of Security to provide escorts for visiting diplomats and dignitaries. Before the 1960s, foreign visits weren't all that common. Transportation technology was... | [
"Repeated and sometimes violent incidents of discrimination directed against black African diplomats, particularly on U.S. Route 40 between New York and Washington, D.C., led to the administration of President John F. Kennedy setting up a Special Protocol Service Section within the State Department to assist black ... |
What similarities do you see between modern america and nazi germany (not just the war years) | (This is not the place to ask a question like that)
Similarities can be drawn between any states, they share so much in common by simply being a state. Nazi Germany and the USA today do not share very much in common. Aside from the government having complete authority over the law and enforcement of it, I cannot think... | [
"After 1945, only few observers continued to see similarities and later on some scholars such as Kiran Klaus Patel, Heinrich August Winkler and John Garraty came to the conclusion that comparisons of the alternative systems do not have to end in an apology for Nazism since comparisons rely on the examination of bot... |
how is visceral fat (stomach fat) removed from doing squats and other strength exercises? | Burning calories makes you lose fat (some small print here about not eating more calories than you burn). So, the exercising itself burns those calories that are preferentially taken from fat. Additionally, the amount of lean muscle mass you have correlated to the basel metabolic rate - the amount of calories you bur... | [
"In strength training, the squat is a full body exercise that trains primarily the muscles of the thighs, hips and buttocks, as well as strengthening the bones, ligaments and insertion of the tendons throughout the lower body. Squats are considered a vital exercise for increasing the strength and size of the legs a... |
Is the moon essential to any life on earth? | The moon stabilizes Earth's orbit. Without the moon, Earth's axial tilt would change over time, with major effects on the climate. Life could still exist, but it would have to keep evolving to keep up with this climate change.
Also, intertidal marine ecosystems are adapted to tides. These communities would be quite dif... | [
"\"Our Moon Life\" is a research organisation led by Sri Sivamathi M. Mathiyalagan. The research aims at creating a complete living condition for plants, animals and Human Life on the Moon, through fundamental understandings of Life on Planet Earth. The fundamentals of life combined with the scientific understandin... |
faculty tenure | You work at a university for a while, you produce good results and prove you are worth it.
You apply to a committee who decide if you are worthy.
If accepted it makes you very very hard to fire. Typically to be fired you have to make a major infraction (like be convicted of a crime, stop working entirely, etc) even t... | [
"Under the tenure systems adopted by many universities and colleges in the United States and Canada, some faculty positions have tenure and some do not. Typical systems (such as the widely adopted \"1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure\" of the American Association of University Professors) a... |
why is iv fluid made of sodium chloride and water, rather than just water? | Injecting pure water into your bloodstream is a bad idea. Water is absorbed from Low-salt to high-salt areas by osmosis, meaning the fresh water would go into the red blood cells, making them swell up and burst.
It’s a pretty common demonstration in biology classes, you can see the red blood cells explode in real time... | [
"Interstitial fluid consists of a water solvent containing sugars, salts, fatty acids, amino acids, coenzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, white blood cells and cell waste-products. This solution accounts for 26% of the water in the human body. The composition of interstitial fluid depends upon the exchanges betwe... |
How did Soviet leaders view the Watergate hearings and Nixon's subsequent resignation? | The Soviet leadership greatly underestimated the importance of the Watergate affair and did not understand its true political significance. When former ambassador Averell Harriman visited Moscow in 1976, he reported that General Secretary Brezhnev did not seem to understand what Nixon did that necessitated his resignat... | [
"In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings against President Nixon after the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides and the administration became engulfed in the scandal that would come to be known as \"Watergate\". That month, Byrd ... |
A far as sheer numbers of soldiers on a battlefield, what was the largest battle to ever take place? | As /u/egavactip was saying, the term "battle" is a bit ambiguous, can we instead ask what was the largest single engagement (defined by number of involved soldiers) before the Korean War. So while an entire siege would not count, the final "over the wall" attack that ended it would. | [
"The largest battle ever fought in New Zealand, the Battle of Hingakaka, occurred around 1780–90, south of Ōhaupō on a ridge near Lake Ngaroto. The battle was fought between about 7,000 warriors from a Taranaki-led force and a much smaller Waikato force under the leadership of Te Rauangaanga.\n",
"The largest bat... |
What makes diamonds in jewelry so reflective? If crystal or cubic zirconia were cut the same exact way, would they look the same? | One of the reasons diamonds are so sparkly is because they have a high [index of refraction](_URL_0_) which means that a lot of the light that enters the diamond undergoes [total internal reflection](_URL_1_). | [
"The luster of a diamond is described as 'adamantine', which simply means diamond-like. Reflections on a properly cut diamond's facets are undistorted, due to their flatness. The refractive index of diamond (as measured via sodium light, 589.3 nm) is 2.417. Because it is cubic in structure, diamond is also isotropi... |
does the body absorb all calories while binge eating? | Edit/disclaimer: it looks like I mucked up whatever I thought I learned from a dietitian. So don't take any of the below seriously. Short point is yes all calories are mostly metabolized. The end.
I asked a registered dietitian this same exact question two weeks ago. She gave a lengthy answer that I'll try to summari... | [
"In addition to binge eating, compulsive overeaters may also engage in \"grazing\" behavior, during which they continuously eat throughout the day. These actions result in an excessive overall number of calories consumed, even if the quantities eaten at any one time may be small.\n",
"The calories a person consum... |
what's the difference between holding your pee and a kegels exercise? | There are two separate things at play. The urethral sphincter and the pelvic floor(kegel). The urethral sphincter works involuntarily and is always (hopefully) clamping down on the urethra just outside the bladder. The pelvic floor is muscle that holds up all the stuff above it and also helps up squeeze out poop an... | [
"Kegel exercise, also known as pelvic-floor exercise, involves repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor, now sometimes colloquially referred to as the \"Kegel muscles\". The exercise can be performed multiple times each day, for several minutes at a time, for one to three m... |
- what would happen if a cell phone vibrated in outer space in a situation with zero gravity and without anything touching it at all? | I know that phone vibrations are caused by a spinning motor with a weighted piece mounted on it.
I would think that Newton’s third would mean the phone would also spin | [
"Due to the extremely low humidity in extraterrestrial environments, very large static charges can accumulate, causing a major hazard for the complex electronics used in space exploration vehicles. Static electricity is thought to be a particular hazard for astronauts on planned missions to the Moon and Mars. Walki... |
In the past it was OK to marry girls in their early teens, what social forces lead to this becoming frowned upon and illegal? | Girls being married in their early teens has only been common in specific historical cultures and subcultures - this isn't a thing that happened overwhelmingly throughout "the past". So if there's a specific context you're thinking of, it would be really helpful as far as getting a comprehensive and in-depth answer goe... | [
"Girls are vulnerable to being forced into marriage at young ages, suffering from a double vulnerability: both for being a child and for being female. Child brides often do not understand the meaning and responsibilities of marriage. Causes of such marriages include the view that girls are a burden for their parent... |
What would Mjolnir actually look like? (How did the norse warhammers looked at the time) | The modern day reproductions of the pendants are usually based off of actual archeological finds like [this](_URL_0_). This design is also found on several runestones and is most likely the way people pictured Mjölnir. Realistically it would have been an impractical weapons, unwieldly and with a very limited range.
T... | [
"Mjolnir was typically depicted as a large, square-headed gray sledgehammer. It has a short, round handle wrapped in brown leather, culminating in a looped lanyard. The object is based on Mjölnir, the weapon of the mythological Thor.\n",
"BULLET::::- Manowar has numerous releases referencing Norse mythology. Besi... |
AMA: Late Antiquity/Early Medieval era circa 400 - 1000 CE, aka "The Dark Ages" | How plugged in were mediaeval town and cities to international trade networks? Do we see a collapse of trans-continental trade after the fall of Rome? If it persisted in some form or other what were the goods that were still traded? | [
"Dark Ages is a British television sitcom, first broadcast as five thirty-minute episodes on ITV in December 1999. It portrayed medieval English villagers fearful of the turn of the new (second) millennium in the year 999 AD, and parodied contemporary fears at the turn of the third millennium (such as the Millenniu... |
why the brain works on even numbers or 5's. | It's nothing to do with our brain - it's our number system. Since our whole counting and math system is based on 10's, the cleanest ways to divide numbers up are in 2's and 5's. So whenever we round or estimate, those are the numbers we gravitate towards - it's easy to recognize that 50 is half of a hundred, but hard... | [
"People have a limited ability to retain information, which worsens when the amount of information increases. For this reason, people alter information to make it more memorable, such as separating a ten-digit phone number into three smaller groups or dividing the alphabet into sets of three to five letters. George... |
how and why does our hair get greasy? | Surrounding hair follicles are little oil-producing structures called "sebaceous glands." These glands work to produce sebum, a natural lubricant for the hair (and also the lips, interestingly). Evolutionarily, this is a great little adaptation because greasy, lubricated hair is more waterproof, and if you didn't like ... | [
"Greasy hair is a hair condition which is common in humans, one of four main types of hair conditioning— normal, greasy, dry and greasy dry. It is primarily caused by build-up of the natural secretion from the sebaceous glands in the scalp and is characterised by the continuous development of natural grease on the ... |
How did former Manhattan project atomic scientists react to the execution of the Rosenbergs? | I don't know of any systematic survey of how the Manhattan Project veterans thought about the Rosenbergs. For a few we know they, like many on the American left at the time, thought the charges were trumped up. Philip Morrison clearly falls into this category and was involved in the later appeal for co-defendant Morton... | [
"In 1953, Eisenhower refused to commute the death sentences of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two U.S. citizens who were convicted in 1951 of providing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. This provoked a worldwide outburst of picketing and demonstrations in favor of the Rosenbergs, along with editorials in otherwise ... |
What happens to Iron after it has rusted away? | As far as recovery, we have been doing this for thousands of years via [smelting](_URL_0_) | [
"The rusting of iron is an electrochemical process that begins with the transfer of electrons from iron to oxygen. The iron is the reducing agent (gives up electrons) while the oxygen is the oxidising agent (gains electrons). The rate of corrosion is affected by water and accelerated by electrolytes, as illustrated... |
If all forces are opposite and equal as stated by Newton, what is physically happening when something breaks? | > If all forces are opposite and equal as stated by Newton
I don't quite understand how in particular this is informing your understanding of structural failures. While conservation of momentum is critical in understanding stress and strain, I think it's more helpful in this case to talk about conservation of energy... | [
"As described by the third of Newton's laws of motion of classical mechanics, all forces occur in pairs such that if one object exerts a force on another object, then the second object exerts an equal and opposite reaction force on the first. The third law is also more generally stated as: \"To every action there i... |
Has all of the earth's land been discovered? | There are new islands forming regularly from volcanic activity, but none would contain prehistoric life. There are certainly cave systems that we have not discovered that may contain various animals and fossils. There is an island, North Sentinel Island, where the native inhabitants have developed their own society and... | [
"The first Antarctic land discovered was the island of South Georgia, visited by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675. Although myths and speculation about a \"Terra Australis\" (\"Southern Land\") date back to antiquity, the first confirmed sighting of the continent of Antarctica is commonly accepted t... |
what the hell does adobe flash player actually do? | The purpose of flash back in the day was to be a compatibility layer to support media that the browser itself did not support. Browsers did not support inline video playback a decade ago, and Flash was a useful container to, among other things, playback videos without compatibility issues across large numbers of differ... | [
"Adobe Flash is a deprecated multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich Internet applications, desktop applications, mobile applications, mobile games and embedded web browser video players. Flash displays text, vector graphics and raster graphics to provide animations, video games and app... |
why do we use "pair" to indicate singular things? | Pants were originally two things - actually a pair. "Pantaloons" were put on one leg at a time. Underwear, shorts etc. are all derivative things and have inherited their pluralness from their full-legged friend. | [
"The \"singular \"they\"\" permits a singular antecedent, used with the same (plural) verb forms as plural they, and has the same inflected forms as plural \"they\" (i.e. \"them\", \"their\", and \"theirs\"), except that in the reflexive form, \"themself\" is sometimes used instead of \"themselves\".\n",
"They ar... |
How close was Albert Speer to becoming the successor of Hitler? | Goering was Hitler's successor until his attempted coup as Hitler saw it in the final days of the Reich and he was stripped or all rank. Hitler penned a new Last Will and Testament that proclaimed that his successors would be Doenitz as Reichpraesident and Goebbels as Reichskanzler. Hitler had combined the two positi... | [
"Hitler's talent as an orator and his ability to draw new members, combined with his characteristic ruthlessness, soon made him the dominant figure. However, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin in June 1921, a mutiny broke out within the party in Munich. Members of its executive committee w... |
If the universe was confined to a finite space (like a box), would all matter eventually form into a gigantic mass, or would it keep forming stars and smaller planets? | There's this concept called [Schwarzchild radius](_URL_0_). If you cram too much matter into too small a space (smaller than the Schwarzchild radius for that mass) then the gravity would be too strong for even light to escape.
We call the resulting object a black hole.
Cramming the entire universe into a box would r... | [
"The more matter there is in the Universe, the stronger the mutual gravitational pull of the matter. If the Universe were \"too\" dense then it would re-collapse into a gravitational singularity. However, if the Universe contained too \"little\" matter then the self-gravity would be too weak for astronomical struct... |
why is it common for an ice cream van to drive around a neighbourhood and sell ice cream, but it's rare that a van exists that does the same thing with another product? | Primarily: nostalgia. There is no point in bringing food to a place where food already exists. You're not going to see a sandwich truck driving around a neighborhood because if someone wants a sandwich, they go inside and make one.
While this is certainly true for ice cream, ice cream trucks predate the presence of fr... | [
"An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a mobile retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near parks, beaches, or other areas where people congregate. Ice cream vans often travel near wh... |
Will an organ donated from a younger person still be "young", as in likely last longer? | Another question regarding organs. I understand all cells in the body constantly die and get replaced. If so, are do the new cells match the donor's genome or the receiver's ? | [
"The youngest organ donor was a baby with anencephaly, born in 2015, who lived for only 100 minutes and donated his kidneys to an adult with renal failure. The oldest known organ donor was a 107-year-old Scottish woman, whose corneas were donated after her death in 2016. The oldest known organ donor for an internal... |
When did Napoleonic style fighting fall out of fashion? | More can always be said on the topic (personally, I think that the post-Napoleonic conflicts that aren't the ACW could use quite a bit more coverage on the sub); for the meantime, here's two particular answers that cover some of your questions:
* The sadly now-deleted u/elos_ [has this quite comprehensive answer](_URL... | [
"Napoleonic tactics describe certain battlefield strategies used by national armies from the late 18th century until the invention and adoption of the rifled musket in the mid 19th century. Napoleonic tactics are characterized by intense drilling of the soldiers, speedy battlefield movement, combined arms assaults ... |
What prompted the rise of the popularity of Occult groups/leaders in the late 19th century? | I don't see any tie-in between archeology and spiritualism.
The idea that spirits exist goes way back, and people were telling ghost stories back in the 18th century and earlier. Ghosts or spirits are described as ethereal beings who have died and wander the earth. In the mid 18th century a scientist named Emanuel Swe... | [
"Emergent occult and esoteric systems found increasing popularity in the early 20th century, especially in Western Europe. Occult lodges and secret societies flowered among European intellectuals of this era who had largely abandoned traditional forms of Christianity. The spreading of secret teachings and magic pra... |
why don't north koreans revolt? | Because they don't know who they can trust - anybody they talk to about this could go and talk to the secret police about it, and then they and their family would have a very hard time of it.
Because they don't know they deserve better than they're getting - it's like if you only ever got sprouts to eat and never ice ... | [
"North Korean defectors experience serious difficulties connected to psychological and cultural adjustment once they have been resettled. This occurs mainly because of the conditions and environment that North Koreans lived in while in their own country, as well as inability to fully comprehend new culture, rules, ... |
how does blackberry priv protect me better than other standard phones available? | I am a Blackberry Priv user.
Like you're five:
It has a program on it called DTEK that tells you when other programs access your personal data. This helps you make better choices about what programs you want on your phone. It also gives you a privacy score and tells you simply how you can make your phone more secure.
... | [
"The Priv was also criticized for its high price in comparison to other recent \"flagship\" phones with better specifications. In conclusion, while commending BlackBerry for being in \"way better shape with the Priv than it was with any of its BB10 devices\", the Priv was ultimately described by \"Ars Technica\" as... |
How do we know that Pluto's orbit is eccentric? | You don't have to observe a full orbit... We know the orbit must be an ellipse, so we just fit the free parameters (semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclination) to the orbital data we have. Nothing depends on seeing a full orbit. | [
"The eccentricity of an orbit is a measure of how elliptical (elongated) it is. All the planets of the Solar System except for Mercury have near-circular orbits (e<0.1). Most exoplanets with orbital periods of 20 days or less have near-circular orbits, i.e. very low eccentricity. That is thought to be due to tidal ... |
why do we sometimes get a cold when we were exposed to low temparatures? | You catch a cold when you're exposed to rhinoviruses - that is to say, there's no magic property of the cold air that makes you sick.
However the reduced temperature has two effects:
1. It increases the survivability of rhinoviruses. They tend to prefer cooler, less humid conditions (such that you might find during ... | [
"The impacts of extreme events on the environment and human society will vary. Some impacts will be beneficial—e.g., fewer cold extremes will probably lead to fewer cold deaths. Overall, however, impacts will probably be mostly negative.\n",
"There may be an increased risk of hypothermia and peritoneal trauma due... |
Why was horse theft considered an offense punishable by death? | there is an old joke about this. usually some young lawyer sees a judge that often commutes the sentences of murderers, but never horse thieves. when asked about it, the judge responds "some men need killing, but there are no horses that need stealing".
In practical terms though, two major points. Horses are very... | [
"Horse theft was a well-known crime in medieval and early modern times and was severely prosecuted in many areas. While many crimes were punished through ritualized shaming or banishment, horse theft often brought severe punishment, including branding, torture, exile and even death. According to one 18th century tr... |
Can we increase our reading speed? | According to Mark Seidenberg, the author of "Language at the Speed of Sight", there are some hard physical limits on reading speed. These have to do with the resolution of the eye, and the amount of "fixation" time it takes to register the shape of a letter on page. He writes:
> The exact number of words per minute... | [
"Advocates of speed reading generally claim that subvocalization places extra burden on the cognitive resources, thus slowing the reading down. Speedreading courses often prescribe lengthy practices to eliminate subvocalizing when reading. Normal reading instructors often simply apply remedial teaching to a reader ... |
Why does paper become *less* tear-resistant when wet whereas cotton does not (as much?), even though both are mostly cellulose? | Cotton is spun and woven. It holds together mostly by friction, while paper is just a bunch of fibres held together by glue (modern paper, at least). The glue is not water resistant, it gets dissolved and the fibres get loose. | [
"Linen is a very durable, strong fabric, and one of the few that are stronger wet than dry. The fibers do not stretch, and are resistant to damage from abrasion. However, because linen fibers have a very low elasticity, the fabric eventually breaks if it is folded and ironed at the same place repeatedly over time.\... |
How does water affect the resonant frequency of a glass? | The water damps and slows the vibration and makes the resonant frequency lower. Note that this is because it's the glass that's vibrating, if it were air in a bottle then more water would raise the frequency. | [
"At moderate frequencies, the energy is too high to cause rotation, yet too low to affect electrons directly, and is absorbed in the form of resonant molecular vibrations. In water, this is where the absorptive index starts to drop sharply, and the minimum of the imaginary permittivity is at the frequency of blue l... |
Is "Homage to Catalonia" an accurate depiction of the Spanish civil war? | [Here](_URL_0_) is an interesting answer. | [
"Catalonia suffered the most fierce engagements during the civil war, as seen in several examples. In Tarragona, in January 1939, mass was held by a canon from Salamanca cathedral, José Artero. During the sermon he cried: \"Catalan dogs! You are not worthy of the sun that shines on you.\" (\"\"¡Perros catalanes! No... |
why is clothing often times ripped off of the victim's bodies during deadly plane crashes? | "If the clothes are missing, usually that means that [the passenger] was probably either ejected from the plane or exposed to extreme wind blast going hundreds of miles an hour, falling out of the sky,"
"The effect of very high speed wind, or the slipstream, hitting the bodies can easily literally rip the clothing r... | [
"During the investigation, the issue of the flammability of passengers' clothing materials was raised. There was evidence that passengers who wore double-knit synthetic fiber clothing articles sustained significantly worse burn injuries during the post-crash fire than passengers who wore articles made from natural ... |
why people barely stay awake during a school lecture but can’t sleep at night | Mental engagement. Some school lectures i had were either mentally taxing or not mentally taxing. Either limits the amount of input my brain can handle. Once my brain is taxed I get tired, taxed can mean two things for myself. Taxed means overwhelmed or underwhelmed(bored). On the bored side, it literally gets bored(i... | [
"Sleep has been directly linked to the grades of students. One in four U.S. high school students admit to falling asleep in class at least once a week. Consequently, results have shown that those who sleep less do poorly. In the United States sleep deprivation is common with students because almost all schools begi... |
How accurate is the representation of Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins? | Overall the game is fairly accurate with a few flaws mostly in portraying Ptolemaic society and the historical figures it handles, but you probably want a bit more detail than that ;-)
In terms of clothing I am going to deliberately gloss over the various outfits available to the protagonist because they happen to be ... | [
"\"Ancient Egypt\" is based on the historical adaptation of Ancient Egypt during the 1930s Golden Age of Egyptian Exploration. It features obelisks and pyramids which are typical of Ancient Egypt. Also featured are Pharaohs' tombs which were supposedly commonly discovered during that era. This zone relies on the de... |
Why does the speed of light(299,792,458 m/s, a finite number) require an infinite amount of energy to reach? | One of the postulates of special relativity is that the speed of light is invariant across reference frames. (The first evidence for this postulate was provided by the Michelson-Morley experiment.) The postulate means the following. Suppose you are travelling at 0.99*c* with respect to me, and you emit a light signal. ... | [
"Light propagates at 299,792,458 m/s, often approximated as in a vacuum. The speed of light (or \"c\") is also the speed of all massless particles and associated fields in a vacuum, and it is the upper limit on the speed at which energy, matter, information or causation can travel; the speed of light is the limit o... |
Was the American military understanding of the Soviet Union's military during the Cold War colored at all by World War 2 popular history such as human wave tactics and multiple soldiers sharing a rifle? | Very much so. This previous answer of mine will likely be of interest for you: _URL_0_ | [
"During the Cold War, in addition to being a political and economic battle, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was a clash of cultures. Communist party leaders depicted the United States as a cultural black hole and cited their own significant culture as evidence that they were the inh... |
I saw a video of someone breathing in a rag of chloroform and getting instantly knocked out. I don’t think that’s real, but it made me curious. How does chloroform work? And what exactly does it do? | Using chloroform to knock someone out in a matter of seconds is entirely fiction.
Chloroform is basically an anesthetic--but one that is no longer used due to the fact that it can seriously damage your liver and heart. Even with perfect dosing, it would take at least 5 minutes of breathing it to knock someone unconsci... | [
"Chloromethyl chloroformate (CClOCHCl) is a chemical compound developed for use in chemical warfare in World War I. It is a tearing agent designed to cause temporary blindness. It is a colorless liquid with a penetrating, irritating odor.\n",
"Inhalation of chloromethane gas produces central nervous system effect... |
What was it like to be a dispatch rider during the Second World War? | An interesting aspect about dispatch riders in WWII - at least British ones - was that many were women. As WWII heated up, more and more men were required on the front lines. Therefore, women [nicknamed the Wrens] started taking up many auxiliary roles, with dispatch being one of these roles. By 1940 they completely to... | [
"They were also used for convoy escort, having to read maps and act as an \"advance party\" into occupied territory. Dispatch riders were an easy target for snipers, had to use dimmed headlights and coped with poor road conditions. In a Second World War study, Sir Hugh Cairns identified head injuries as a major cau... |
saunas | It's very relaxing and it cleans your skin better than shower because sweat comes under your skin and cleans you completely.
Everything else is pretty surely bullshit. Living in a country where every family has Sauna and never heard of either point. Looks like false advertisement and splatting health reasons for every... | [
"Most saunas employ \"saunameesters\" (sauna masters), which are gentlemen or ladies who pour water on the stove on regular times during the day (, pouring water on the heated stones, often fragranced with natural oils, and spreading heat by waving the air through the sauna). Also during the \"opgieting\", they mig... |
Are There Ancient Temples In North America? | The big ones were made by the [Mound Builders](_URL_3_) who built enormous constructions of mounded dirt (as the name would indicate). Some famous sites by various groups are [Cahokia](_URL_2_), [Moundville](_URL_1_), and [serpent mound](_URL_0_). | [
"The Vedanta Society was responsible for building some early temples in United States starting in 1906, but they were not formal temples. Earliest traditional Mandir in the United States is Shiva Murugan Temple, Concord, CA (1957) known as Palanisamy Temple, it is one of the few temples that is run by public by ele... |
what specifically do people mean when they say a song/abum has good "production"? | The producer edits together the various sounds, taking the ones that will sound best, and mixing the loudness levels so that you hear the right amount of each thing. For example, the various instruments and the vocals are almost always recorded separately and then combined. In many cases, the producer is also respon... | [
"The song comes first. And all of those other things that people remember, the imagistic things, are secondary, or certainly not as important. But I think I’ve become pretty good at sussing out when people's opinions of my work are coming from what they think of me personally. You just have to do your thing and the... |
Everyone is familiar with the US navy in the pacific during WW2, and also with the struggle of escorting convoys in the Atlantic at the same time. Did the US ever undertake carrier operations in the Atlantic that you just never hear about? | There’s actually a pretty good answer archived [here.](_URL_0_) The US Navy deployed aircraft carriers that we are certainly less familiar with in the Atlantic. They were not considered duty in the Pacific due to their obvious limitations, but were perfect for service in convoys in the Atlantic. | [
"Mid-Ocean Escort Force (MOEF) referred to the organisation of anti-submarine escorts for World War II trade convoys between Canada and Newfoundland, and the British Isles. The allocation of United States, British, and Canadian escorts to these convoys reflected preferences of the United States upon their declarati... |
Would it have been socially acceptable in late Republican Rome for a Senator (or a prominent Roman male) to be exclusively homosexual? No marriage with a woman, no children, just exclusively and openly in relationships with other males? | You partly answer your own question with your understanding of Roman views on penetration; a senator who was purely (and willingly) receptive would be viewed as a *cinaedus* and thus utterly shameful. More interesting to consider, however, is the apparently unusual idea that a *vir* would be only interested in one sex... | [
"Among the conservative upper Senatorial classes, status was more important than the person in any sexual relationship. Thus, Roman citizens could penetrate non-citizen males, plebeian (or low class) males, male slaves, boys, eunuchs and male prostitutes just as easily as young female slaves, concubines and female ... |
what was the politcal party kuomintang (kmt) of china and how did it's idealism went against the communist party of china (cpc)? what was the civil war resulting in the separation of china and taiwan? |
The KMT was the nationalist party of China (though really they were basically fascists). It was one of the parties vying for control of China following the fall of the Imperial court. They're primarily known for fighting against the Communists as well as later the Japanese. The civil war between the two parties starte... | [
"Between 1946 and 1950, the CCP was increasingly enjoying massive support from the Chinese people in the \"War of Liberation,\" effectively implementing a People's war, while the KMT became increasingly isolated, only belatedly attempting to stem corruption and introduce popular reforms. On October 1, 1949 the Peop... |
why is it that old norse beliefs and other beliefs that were destroyed by crusades are referred to as myths while modern day beliefs/religions are not? | The only people that don't refer to today's religions as myths are the people that actively believe in said myths, that's all it really boils down to | [
"Old Norse mythological stories survived in oral culture for at least two centuries, to be recorded in the 13th century. How this mythology was passed down is unclear; it is possible that pockets of pagans retained their belief system throughout the 11th and 12th centuries, or that it had survived as a cultural art... |
- quantum entanglement & spooky action at a distance | I've never done one of these, so I'll give it a go. Hope I don't go overboard.
Say you download a one-use-only "SAAD" app for you and your friend to communicate with. You stay on Earth, and very patiently wait for your friend to reach Mars. When you're all situated, you hit the "Measure" button on the app, and your... | [
"In 2014, researchers Ronald Hanson and colleagues from the Technical University Delft in the Netherlands, demonstrated the teleportation of information between two entangled quantumbits three metres apart.\n",
"It turns out that the phases of the twin beams are quantum correlated as well, leading to entanglement... |
What are the forces involved when a bubble bursts on top of water? | Well a bubble (as is normally defined) contains matter in the gaseous state. For any substance, the gas phase is inherently more 'energetic' than the liquid phase. The gas molecules (or atoms, possibly) are moving at a higher velocity. This is all stuff you probably already know. But to tie it in with your question, th... | [
"Cavitation bubbles, when near a solid surface, can also become a torus. The area away from the surface has an increased static pressure causing a high pressure jet to develop. This jet is directed towards the solid surface and breaks through the bubble to form a torus shaped bubble for a short period of time. This... |
Where does the CO2 go? | Into the ground! There's 2 things working against far-future CO2 concentrations: the luminosity of the sun and the volcanism on the Earth.
In actuality, trees aren't the biggest source of CO2 uptake currently. Instead, the oceans absorb most of it where it becomes Carbonic Acid in the water (this is what is causing mo... | [
"CO, NO and CH are common greenhouse gases and CO is the largest contributor to climate change. Therefore the greenhouse gas emissions are frequently denoted as CO equivalent emissions. Total global greenhouse gas emissions increased 12.7% between 2000 and 2005. In 2005, around 8.3 Gt CO was released by building se... |
why you can sleep while watching tv on high volume, but you can't when hearing pigeons or other noises | It's constant noise VS intermittent noise.
Falling asleep with constant noise is easy, because the brain can essentially block it out, since it is consistent.
Waking up to birds, or not being able to fall asleep with snoring, is because the noises are variable, they change and occur on and off. This keeps your brain ... | [
"Noise can make sleeping difficult on occasions, whether from snoring, talking and social activities in the lounge, people staying up to read with the light on, someone either returning late from bars, or leaving early, or the proximity of so many people. To mitigate this, some wear earplugs or eye-covering sleepin... |
Why do I itch when I run again after a long hiatus? | It happens to everyone, don't worry.
[read this](_URL_0_)
During power exercises such as sprinting, when the rate of demand for energy is high, lactate is produced faster than the ability of the tissues to remove it, so lactate concentration begins to rise. This is a beneficial process, since the regeneration of NAD+... | [
"The exact mechanism of the condition is unknown. Some studies have suggested the itching occurs in response to increased fibrinolytic activity in the skin, inappropriate activation of the sympathetic nervous system, or increased activity of Acetylcholinesterase.\n",
"The infection causes a red, intensely pruriti... |
What is the history of the hotel detective? How were they employed, and what became of them? | A "hotel detective" was, and is, just a plainclothes security officer for the hotel security team. They are called "detectives" by analogy with the rank system many police departments use (or used to use), where there is a rank called "detective" below that of "sergeant", but above that of "corporal".
A hotel detec... | [
"Hotel detectives are often retired and/or ex-police officers with some training. They have prominence in certain noir fiction, especially in the works of Raymond Chandler, and sometimes referred to as \"House Dicks\". The term \"hotel detective\" is no longer used as most hotels today employ uniformed security sta... |
why does unplugging and replugging in my wifi or electronics fixes it. | As programs run and use files, stuff accumulates in various caches, temp folders, memory, etc.
Turning something off/on refreshes (empties, in most cases) these locations to be clean, the way the computer likes them to be (more stuff = more computer time to process it all).
It's kind of like humans. Don't you w... | [
"The \"Fix problems\" section provides access to \"TuneUp Repair Wizard\" which allows users to selectively repair problems that TuneUp Utilities cannot automatically detect, e.g., icons getting corrupted or items like My Computer and Recycle Bin having permanently vanished from Windows Desktop.\n",
"As an overcl... |
What is the frame of reference for Earth's orbital speed? | It's the Sun-centered inertial reference frame. As its name implies, the Sun's center of mass determines the origin of the coordinate system. The X axis points in the direction of the vernal equinox, the Y axis is 90° ahead along the ecliptic plane, and the Z axis points North perpendicularly to the XY plane.
_URL_2_
... | [
"This reference frame is not truly inertial because of the slow, 26,000 year precession of Earth's axis, so the reference frames defined by Earth's orientation at a standard astronomical epoch such as B1950 or J2000 are also commonly used.\n",
"Let \"t\" be the time in an inertial frame subsequently called the re... |
why does power cycling (fully discharging - > fully charging) new lithium ion batteries make them hold more charge? | It's my understanding that power cycling calibrates the "fuel gauge" so that the device knows how the battery behaves as it discharges, allowing it to make more accurate measurements of remaining capacity and runtime.
Lithium batteries do not suffer from the "memory effect." | [
"In the basic process of battery discharging and charging, lithium ions from the positive electrode pass through a separator/electrolyte. They then transfer via a solid electrolyte interface (SEI), and intercalate into the negative electrode. The potential negative impact for rapid charging is that the battery agin... |
When did rhyming in music become popular? | First of all, rhyming in poetry goes back to time immemorial, our earliest example coming from the Chinese Shi Jing ca. 10th century BC. We really don't have a great sense of how poetic features like rhyme interacted with music here, simply because so little of the musical tradition survives. But as one instance, Hebre... | [
"The earliest surviving evidence of rhyming is the Chinese Shi Jing (ca. 10th century BC). Rhyme is also occasionally used in the Bible. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not usually rhyme, but rhyme was used very occasionally. For instance, Catullus includes partial rhymes in the poem \"Cui dono lepidum novum l... |
Did any culture outside of North America have an equivalent of maple syrup or maple sugar made from tree sap? | Coconut and date palms (and a variety of other palms as well) have been used throughout South Asia and the Pacific Islands as a sugar source for some time. The process of production is essentially the same, though it's often taken further to the point where the sugar crystallizes, and the product (which you can find in... | [
"The first groups known to have produced maple syrup and maple sugar were indigenous peoples living in the northeastern part of North America. According to aboriginal oral traditions, as well as archaeological evidence, maple tree sap was being processed into syrup long before Europeans arrived in the region.\n",
... |
why does the bot remove comments that are too short. if i explain something to a 5 year old i ussually do it very succinctly. | There are a lot of strange and ludicrous things on Reddit. You just have to accept them and move on with your life. There is no one to complain to, and even if there was, they probably would just ban you instead of listening to you like an adult. | [
"Previously, if a user attempted to delete their comment, Disqus \"anonymized\" their comment by changing the author to a Guest user, without removing the content of the body itself. The only recourse at that time was to flag the comment, contact the site moderator to delete the anonymized Guest comment, or to reme... |
This picture showing the stereotypes of several European ethnicities groups Turks and Greeks together. Why is that? | Turkey and Greece have been dancing around each other for centuries.
There was quite a lengthy period of time (some 370 years, from the 1450s to the 1820s) where much of what is now Greece was under Ottoman rule. Your picture looks to be smack in the middle of this period.
It was only in the early 20th century, in 1... | [
"Turks are \"the most prominent ethnic minority group in contemporary Germany\", and discrimination and violence against them are common. In public discourse and popular jokes, they are often portrayed as \"ludicrously different in their food tastes, dress, names, and even in their ability to develop survival techn... |
what is the difference between supervised learning and unsupervised learning | In reinforced learning you get some feedback after each answer. E.g. you do your homework and the teacher marks correct answers. Supervised you just get feedback. E.g. you do your homework, and the teacher grades it. Unsupervised there isn't really a right solution, so you just look for patterns or groupings. E.g. you... | [
"Unsupervised learning is the ability to find patterns in a stream of input, without requiring a human to label the inputs first. Supervised learning includes both classification and numerical regression, which requires a human to label the input data first. Classification is used to determine what category somethi... |
why do you sometimes get this feeling in the pit of your stomach, sort of like you're embarrassed or uncomfortable, out of nowhere at random times? | Sounds like mild anxiety, to me. At a complete guess, I'd say that there's something going on at a level you aren't conscious of. It's nothing to be worried about, it's just stuff that you're feeling, caused by thoughts you aren't aware of.
It could be stuff that went on in dreams. I sometimes have terrible dreams, an... | [
"Gastritis or stomach upset is a common irritating disorder affecting millions of people. Gastritis is basically inflammation of the stomach wall lining and has many causes. Smoking, excess alcohol consumption and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, account for the majority... |
asthma, inhalers, asthma attacks, and what to do in an emergency. | I have had severe asthma since I was three years old. One thing that many people don't realize is how much an asthmatic's mental state can affect the outcome of their attack. First of all, keep calm. Of course, administer inhalers ASAP in the event of an attack, but make sure to keep calm. I have had asthma attacks wh... | [
"Emergency medicine, also known as accident and emergency medicine, is the medical specialty concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians care for unscheduled and undifferentiated patients of all ages. As first-line providers, their primary responsibil... |
why does peta steal and kill pets when their entire program is passed on saving the lives of animals? | PETA, in a nutshell, believes animals should live naturally without humans interfering with their lives. They are not about saving animal's lives, they are about gaining animal's rights.
They claim that they put these animals down because their lives have already been ruined by humans and cannot be rehabilitated to li... | [
"PETA opposes the no-kill movement, attempts to address the animal-overpopulation crisis at its source through spaying and neutering companion animals as well as by opposing breeders and puppy mills, transfers adoptable animals to open-admission shelters, and euthanizes most of the animals who end up at its \"shelt... |
can someone explain like i'm 10 (big boy now!) how the legislative branch works? | On the most basic level, Congress does these things:
* **Propose bills** Someone has an idea for a law, they make a bill and hope it passes.
* **Vote on bills** If over half of both houses of congress approve a bill, it will probably become law.
* **Override vetoes** The president can reject or "veto" a bill that has ... | [
"The legislative power is constituted by the General Assembly, composed of two chambers: the Chamber of Representatives, consisting of 99 members representing the 19 departments, elected based on proportional representation; and the Chamber of Senators, consisting of 31 members, 30 of whom are elected for a five-ye... |
mandarin chinese sentence structure | Try this usually, it's not a solid rule, just a general guide: Subject -- Time -- Place -- Prepositional Phrase -- Verb -- Ob
**example**: wo zuotian zai fanguan chi fan = I yesterday at restaurant eat food or something. You can omit stuff, add stuff etc...
Source: does graduate level Chinese and linguistics count? | [
"Mandarin Chinese is a language that lacks absolute tense. In other words, it is not necessary to specify the temporal location of an event in Mandarin. Instead, one or two words can be added to the beginning or end of a sentence to denote tense. It is usually assumed that the speaker is using present tense, but th... |
why does pushing an earbud into your ear make the music significantly more quiet? | You're probably pushing it at an angle that causes the speaker to partially push against the wall of your ear canal, muffling the sound | [
"A potential disadvantage of AGC is that when recording something like music with quiet and loud passages such as classical music, the AGC will tend to make the quiet passages louder and the loud passages quieter, compressing the dynamic range; the result can be a reduced musical quality if the signal is not re-exp... |
why are movie directors often blamed for bad movies, when they usually have very little (if any) to do with the story and screenplay? | The majority of how a movie feels is the directors influence. Pacing and tone are essential to a movie, and directors handle that as much as a screenwriter does. There are lots of movies with good dialogue but bad pacing that feel like bad movies, and vice versa. ( I’m too tired to think of examples right now, sorry)
... | [
"Variety said the film \"is a classic example of what happens when bad scripts tackle good subjects.\" The film has a few powerful scenes smothered by stereotypes along with \"one of the most spectacularly misconceived endings in memory.\" \n",
"In the introduction the authors admit that \"we know our choices wil... |
why were many soviet soldiers sent to battle with no weapons during the second world war? | It's a myth: _URL_0_ | [
"Small items of equipment such as personal firearms, clothing and uniforms and so forth are routinely lost as personnel are wounded, killed, or taken prisoner. There is often a perception (and sometimes a reality) amongst soldiers that foreign equipment is better or more convenient than the equipment issued by the ... |
why do societies and laws prevent people from having sex until they are 16-18 when period is like a nature way of saying "you can have sex now"? | Just because you *can* have sex, doesn't necesarily mean it is a good decision. Girls as young as nine can have their periods (even younger with certain medical decisions) So taking menstruation as readiness, you'd be saying these kids are completely ready to have sex.
Sex can be a huge thing in terms of consequences.... | [
"State law specifies (by not saying anything) that minors between 13 and 15 years old may, in general, engage in a consensual sexual relationship with someone up to four years older. Therefore, for example, it is legal for a 14-year-old male or female to engage in consensual sex with a person up to 18 years of age.... |
Can smoke detectors detect things other than smoke? | Smoke detectors don't directly detect smoke or any of the gases in it. They contain a few micrograms of radioactive Americium, which releases radiation that is detected. It is the interference of this radiation by the smoke which raises the alarm. Anything that blocked the emission from the Americium would be detected ... | [
"Traditional smoke detectors are technically ionisation smoke detectors which create an electric current between two metal plates, which sound an alarm when disrupted by smoke entering the chamber. Ionisation smoke alarms can quickly detect the small amounts of smoke produced by fast-flaming fires, such as cooking ... |
Did people carry a form of ID in the nineteenth-century? How likely is it that a criminal could remain ‘at large’ without being identified in the ‘Wild West’ or Victorian England? | Follow on question: how good/reliable/accurate were wanted ads and descriptions? How often were the wrong people brought in from far away only to be released when recognized as not the person being sought? | [
"In June 1951, Goddard ruled in \"Willcock v Muckle\" that giving police the power to demand an ID card \"from all and sundry, for instance, from a lady who may leave her car outside a shop longer than she should\", made people resentful of the police and \"inclines them to obstruct the police instead of to assist ... |
Are tides on small islands or atolls similar to those on the coasts of the Atlantic/Pacific Oceans? | The tides on small, isolated islands are generally more consistent and in many cases smaller than tides on continents, because the large land masses often direct the water and cause larger tidal waves.
_URL_0_
| [
"Land masses and ocean basins act as barriers against water moving freely around the globe, and their varied shapes and sizes affect the size of tidal frequencies. As a result, tidal patterns vary. For example, in the U.S., the East coast has predominantly semi-diurnal tides, as do Europe's Atlantic coasts, while t... |
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